Nicki Minaj Calls Out ‘Racist’ Serena Williams Cartoon

Nicki Minaj has joined a number of Serena Williams-supporters in calling out an Australian newspaper's cartoonist for depicting Williams with seemingly racist tropes.

As part of her latest Beats 1 radio show, Queen, Minaj accused cartoonist Mark Knight of perpetuating racial stereotypes with his depiction of Williams, who lost the final match of the U.S. Open this weekend to 20-year-old Naomi Osaka. Williams was penalized a handful of times through the match (first for receiving signals from her coach, which she denied), and chided umpire Carlos Ramos for treating her unfairly.

Williams and many have since insisted that if she were a man, she wouldn't have been subjected to the same scrutiny.

Knight's cartoon features Williams, whose size is greatly exaggerated, angrily pouting while jumping on her fraying racket. The size of her lips and facial features is also ratcheted up.

“Every time you see a black woman not agree with something going on…they’re labelled as angry or having a meltdown," Minaj said. "This needs to stop.”

“[Knight] is getting my ‘c--------- of the day award’ because he made a cartoon illustrating Serena. By the way, our culture loves this body, homegrown, au naturale, we love her body, and you drew this woman looking like you were trying to make fun of her."

Minaj added that Williams anger was totally justified, and that just because she was making a point doesn't mean she was being hostile or overly inflammatory.

“Black women are not allowed to say they’re being mistreated without being told they’re on drugs, having a meltdown, they’re a sore loser, bitter, miserable… give me a f------ break,” she said. “We are not allowing this to be done anymore. She demonstrated grace, she demonstrated passion. There is a difference between passion and a f------ meltdown.

“Why the f--- is everyone allowed to be passionate apart from black women?” Minaj concluded.

Williams was ultimately fined $17,000 for the penalties Ramos issued against her. Most notably, Williams called Ramos a "thief" for penalizing her a game.